


Gunpowder and Lead

by Cupcakemolotov



Series: come alive [13]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate universe - Mafia, Discussion Of Murder, F/M, Some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-14 18:30:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14141985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cupcakemolotov/pseuds/Cupcakemolotov
Summary: Two year ago, Caroline ran. Today, Klaus found her.





	Gunpowder and Lead

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble request- Mafia AU/AH. Klaus was born and raised to kill, as part of the most dangerous family in the world. He is given the mission to torture information out of Bill Forbes, who has stolen money from them but Bill’s beautiful and intriguing daughter is quite the distraction ;) can play out however you want.

Caroline knew from the sudden, sharp raps on her door that it was over; two years of running, down the drain. Staring at the dishes she'd been loading into her dishwasher, she dried her hands slowly. Tried to wrestle through the mess of feelings two years hadn't dulled.

Another set of rapid, impatient raps and for a single moment she considered going for the bathroom window. She'd probably make it as far as the ground floor before she'd be picked up - probably one his numerous siblings. Squaring her shoulders, Caroline headed for her front door.

Klaus was waiting for her.

Curls tousled, eyes glittering and his jaw held tight, she gave herself a moment to absorb the impact of him. The dimples, the day old scruff, and the way he smelled. The things he'd imprinted on her skin.

"You're not my pizza."

Spinning on her heel, Caroline headed back to her kitchen, adding soap to her dishwasher while she listened to Klaus shutting and locking her door. The weighty clunk of his gun being set within easy reach. Her fingers trembled a little, but she refused to acknowledge it.

"Chicago, love?"

Kicking the machine shut, Caroline shrugged. "I hoped you'd have a bit more trouble tracking me into unfriendly territory."

"It took me six months to wrangle a visit," Klaus bit out. "Or I'd have been here sooner."

She crossed her arms, refusing to think about that. She'd known he'd find her - her ability to hide was nothing in comparison to Elijah's ability to track, but she'd never have thought he'd want to talk. A bullet to the brain, a kidnapping…

"A bullet doesn't take much effort, Klaus." Caroline said waspishly, her nerves making her voice sharp.

"Of all the things I've considered doing once I found you, Caroline, killing you hasn't been one of them."

Her lips twisted sardonically. "Now why do I find that hard to believe?"

"My family doesn't get a vote," his tone was ruthless, eyes filled with iron. "Do you think I haven't noticed that you might've chosen a rival family's territory, but you were careful to avoid them? The lack of my family's secrets on the market?"

"I didn't want your family's dirty laundry to start with," Caroline snapped, setting her feet. "Do you think I wanted any of this?"

"You wanted me."

"And look where that got me." Caroline ground out. She flung out her arms. "I missed my father's funeral."

"I know," Klaus took a step closer, eased into the kitchen. "That's how I knew you'd run."

"Steven thought going to the Feds would fix it, would protect us." Caroline gave a harsh laugh, her chest raw. "You killed my dad."

"Yes," Klaus said simply. "And if when I find Steven and his daughter, I'll kill them too."

Lips trembling, Caroline lifted her chin. "I know. So tell me, Klaus, how long until you kill me?"

"Why not try to kill me?" Klaus asked instead, arching both brows. "You knew it was me at the door - why not take the vengeance we both know you want?"

"And then what?" Caroline asked, hands fisting. "Whatever of your family is waiting on the streets kills me?"

"I miss you," Klaus said. "I miss your laugh, your skin and that surprised squeak when I startle you. It took two days for your perfume to leave my sheets and I miss it."

"Don't be sentimental," Caroline snapped. "You lied to me; you kill people!"  
"Not you." Klaus said firmly. "What is the point of running my love? I'd find you anyway. Seattle. New Orleans. Los Angeles. Chicago. You ran through those cities, desperate and alone."

"Yeah, well my ex-boyfriend ended up being a mafia hitman with a contract to kill my dad, and he used me to get close." Caroline shoved her hair out of her eyes, gaze hot.

Klaus laughed. "If I'd wanted you for bait, I'd have tossed you inside a van - bound and gagged – and waited for your father to show. That was the plan. But you looked at me, with that radiant smile and for the first time in my life, I hesitated."

"And that's supposed to mean what? I should be thankful that you fell in love with me instead?"

"It means something if you moved fast enough to avoid the protections I had in place as well as the Feds." Klaus said, voice rough. "Your father had the connections, don't tell me he didn't leave you that information. It obviously matters, Caroline if you're here instead of in witness protection."

The world wavered and Caroline looked up, refused to cry. "Stop it."

He was so close, she could feel the heat of him, smelled that lingering mix of aftershave and cologne that reminded her of slow afternoons on his couch. His fingers stroked carefully against her shoulder, fingertips calloused from weapons and paint brushes.

"Your father stole from my family. Tried to sell our secrets. Nothing you or I might have done would have saved him - but my family will not touch you." Klaus said, voice low. "You know this, Caroline."

"Knowing isn't accepting."

But wasn't it grating, to know the weeks leading to his death, Bill had used her as surely as Klaus had. He'd known who Klaus was and attempted to use her for leverage. A chance to live. And Klaus was correct, she'd moved fast, taken everything she could find that Steven might try to use against the Mikaelson family - knowing Elijah's sweepers were close - and ran.

Learned exactly how much her father had hidden from her when she'd moved back in with him at seventeen. How deeply he and Steven were involved with organized crime. Gained more information about her mother's death than the police had ever provided.

"I've painted you. Etched you across countless sketchbooks, but you're a drug I can't shake. I go home, blood still wet on my skin and all I can think of is you. How much I miss you on my couch, in my bed."

She glared at him from behind her tears. "I can't do this."

"Do you miss me, Caroline?"

She looked away. "You need to leave."

Slow, gentle strokes of his fingers against her thundering pulse, and he said her name softly. Tone coaxing.

"Caroline. Do you miss me?"

A tear slipped down her cheek and she shook her head. "No."

He cupped her face, hands gentle against her skin. "Little liar."

Klaus kissed her. Lips sliding long and lingering against her lips, tongue chasing her hitching sigh - a hand sliding to cup her ass, pull her closer so he could court her with his tongue. Shuddering, fingers tangled in the collar of his shirt, the tangle of necklaces, Caroline melted against him. Breathed in the taste and feel of him, and felt something break open in her chest.

Her face was wet as he pulled back, his fingers wiping her cheeks. "Stop running."

She huffed, swatted his hands from her face and used her shirt to wipe her eyes. "Not going to drag me back by my hair?"

"I'm exceptionally tempted to tie you to my bed. Long, silk scarves in reds and golds - the dark silk of my sheets the perfect canvas for your skin." Klaus ran a tongue along his lips.

Caroline let out a shaky breath. "You lied to me."

"Yes."

"You won't stop killing."

"No," Klaus said, hands twitching with the need to reach for her. "This is my life."

"And you just expect me to accept it," Caroline demanded, blinking heavily. "To approve."

Klaus caught her shaky hand, pressed it to his lips. "Caroline - do you love me?"

"Please don't ask me that."

"I don't require your approval or you acceptance. I don't need it. What I need is you. Your sunshine and your temper; the way you throw the towels I left on the floor at me, the way you reach for me at night - how you steal all my shirts."

Caroline shook her head, bottom lip wobbling. "How can we go back to that? How do you expect this to work?"

"And this makes you happy? Running?" He reached out, caught her shoulders with firm hands. "I know you Caroline. I know this isn't what you want."

"What I want is gone," Caroline whispered. "When I found you standing over my father's body."

Klaus licked his lips. "So you'll continue to run?"

"Will you let me?" Caroline breathed.

"What if I give you a different option," Klaus ground out, eyes sliding closed. "I cannot risk my family seeing you as a liability and I will not let the Feds hunt you. I have a place, a safe house. Elijah does not know of it, does not know he should hunt for it. You can start over."

Caroline froze, eyes locked onto his face. "And you?"

"I'd walk away," he said through locked teeth. "If that's what you need, I'll let you be."

Caroline blinked hard, ignoring the fresh wetness on her cheeks, stared at the harsh expression on Klaus' face as he refused to look at her. "You'd let me go."

"I'd try," Klaus said flatly. "For you, I'd try."

Her father's killer. Holding her with hands darker than anyone she'd known, with scars on his body and behind his eyes that she'd never know the stories too. He'd hunt in the shadows for his family - until something scarier came along and destroyed him, or he transitioned into a different role. But the Mikaelson family was who he was.

She should say yes.

She wanted to walk away.

Her stepfather hadn't cared about her opinion. He'd cut his deal, expected her to run with him and her step-sister. Her mother had been killed by her father's associates. Her father had decided he was smarter than the family he'd chosen to work for.

And this nightmare, this killer waited with clenched jaw and fury for her to reject him. This horrible man who loved her, who'd watched her from a killer's eyes and answered all her hysterical questions, Bill Forbes' blood on his hands. Who liked cuddles and made the best pancakes she'd ever tasted. Who laughed like it was a surprise and stained her skin with his artist's hands.

All she had to do was take his deal. Walk away. Accept she'd find a shadow every so often, make a life for herself. She'd be free.

It was everything she wanted.

The hole it opened in her chest devastated her. The tight band around her lungs, the burning in her stomach - she'd lived alone for two years, tasted absolute loneliness and there, at the back of her mind she wondered. She knew Klaus would hunt her, he'd answered too many of her questions; given too much away. But she'd always wondered why… if she really mattered to him. She knew his family would prefer her dead - Elijah had been clear - but here Klaus was…

Waiting for her.

"I can't," Caroline sobbed, hands pressing against her mouth. She shook her head, face crumbling. "I can't."

"Sweetheart," Klaus tried, hands reaching for hers. But instead of pulling away, she stepped into the line of his body, pressed her face into his shoulder and cried. Sobbed brokenly as his arms curved around her, as he sank to the floor and tucked her close, rocking slowly.

Eventually, her tears stopped. But Caroline didn't let go, fingers curled tightly into his shirt. What did it mean, that she loved a monster too much to walk away? She couldn't save this man - his path was straight before him, the loyalty to his family binding. She understood that. She'd loved her mother, and had even loved her father, but would either of her parents have loved her for making this choice?

Could she live with herself for condoning Klaus' lifestyle? Because whatever he felt for her - to choose her over his family's wishes - it would wither and die if she tried to ignore parts of his life. It would crumble beneath her desperate fingers, no matter how hard she clung to him.

But wasn't that was she'd struggled with for the last two years? It wasn't being alone that had left her so lonely her bones had ached, but the lack of Klaus. She'd proven she could live without him, she didn't need him to survive, didn't want to want him – scrapped out her tiny pieces of happiness. But those weeks she'd spent with him, those bright star bursts of joy had left her empty when they'd been taken away.

"I miss you," Caroline hiccuped into his chest. "I miss you."

Klaus went still beneath her body, the steady beat of his heart thudding underneath her cheek. His fingers tangled in her hair, fingertips resting against the nap if her neck and she felt his body brace itself before she spoke.

"Caroline…"

"I want to hate you." She told him, refusing to look at him, fingers winding tightly into his shirt. "I've tried to hate you."

"I deserve your hate."

She nodded. "Yes. So why can't I?"

His chest hitched, fingers flexing in her hair. "What are you saying?"

Slowly, Caroline leaned back, fingers untangled from his clothes. She reached up, cupped his face between her hands and swallowed. "I want to be happy. I don't want to look over my shoulder looking for danger; I want a family - my family - around me. But the day my mom died, the day I walked back into my dad's life I lost that, didn't I?"

Klaus' jaw worked. "You can still have that."

"But not with you." Caroline breathed, lips trembling. "I won't bring children into a life with you - I won't risk your family twisting them. My father made choices - terrible choices that cost me everything - and I don't know if I can forgive you being the instrument of his death. But I can try."

"Caroline, I need you to tell me what you want." Klaus' eyes were wild. "What are you saying, love?"

"This safe house of yours, does it have room for two people?"

His eyes slid shut; hands sliding free of her hair to encircle her wrists. His fingers trembled, just a little. "I can't hide forever."

"Just long enough for us to settle," Caroline whispered. "Long enough for you and I to find our footing. I won't go to you with your family like this - I need time."

He pulled her hands from way from his jaw, kissed her palms slowly. His eyes burned as they looked at her, the feral edge sending something hit down her spine.

"I can't watch you walk away twice."

"I need to know we can do this," Caroline whispered. "That I can accept the killer."

"If you can't?"

"I don't know," Caroline admitted.

He nodded once. "I can't promise you happiness, sweetheart. But if you let me, I'll love you forever."

"I know."

"I have a plane waiting," Klaus said quietly. "How soon can you be ready to leave?"

"Now." Caroline said with a shrug. "All my important things are in a lock-box in Phoenix."

He blinked. "Why Phoenix

"Seemed like as good a place as any," she admitted. "Klaus… you've a lot to make up for."

"Yes."

Caroline untangled herself from him, tried not to reach for him as he stood. "You can start with pancakes."

Lips curling, he watched her from beneath his lashes, gaze hot. "If that's where you want me to start."

Swallowing, Caroline turned on her heel. "I need fifteen minutes."

"Take as long as you want, love. I'm here."

Caroline ducked behind her door, breathed out slowly. Wondered if wherever she was, Liz Forbes could forgive her this choice. Hand pressed over her heart, she closed her eyes. Waited for her pulse to calm - waited for the guilt.

All she felt was relief.

Nodding, Caroline packed her bag.

Klaus was waiting for her when she exited her room. Reaching for her hand, he laced their fingers together. "Ready?"

"Yes."

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